Doors & Sidelights

Pasadena Lead-Free Door with Circles

Although having a simple design with elegant long arcs, this lead-free composition uses zinc metal rather than lead came to hold the glass in place. The design addressed the desire of the clients to evoke concentric circles of unity and at the same time it also paid homage to the husband’s professional cycling career. From one perspective the partial concentric circle suggests that we are part of a larger construct and the symmetry suggests balance and security. From a completely different perspective, the circles resemble the scene of multiple bicycle tires as would be viewed at ground level of a pack of cyclists rolling by.

Adding personal connections between the stained glass piece and the client elevates the significance of the art in the eyes of the clients and provides the clients a more direct attachment to “their” piece.

Pasadena Pocket Door Oak Tree Branch with Blue Background

The Pasadena home where this commission was done already had leaded windows with the well-known Tudor styled pattern of triangles, squares and elongated center segments. The clients wanted to continue that theme for a new pocket door between the dining room and kitchen but add color and oak branches. To produce the correct effect of having the blue opalescent background glass look like the sky behind the oak branches, the blue glass would need to be cut contiguously.
The challenge with the cutting of the blue glass is apparent when one considers the multiple corners that must be precisely cut with minimal radiuses (the window uses 3/16” wide lead), and this difficult process repeated numerous times with no failures allowed. If even one piece had broken incorrectly, then the entire panel would have had to be thrown out and the process repeated.

Cutting glass like this is nerve racking but also very exciting! To add another layer of difficulty and esthetic beauty to the composition, a single leaf and an acorn were drilled into the blue glass and each one “floats” in space. The oak branches are intentionally “woven” through each other and the Tudor pattern to give a more dimensional effect to the window. The photo of the window seems to show the “sun” shining at the upper part of the glass. Actually, the glowing “sun” is the kitchen light somewhat visible in the other room…and it works to great effect!

La Crescenta Primary Bedroom Doors – Tree Motif

The design of the double doors for the Primary Bedroom was intended to be an elegant, tranquil element at the top of a staircase landing in a most unique Arts and Crafts style home that includes many fine wood details. Within the tree design of the door Tico Tech, Inc.^TM added traditional cloud lift lines for interest and to repeat the pattern of the cloud lift motif at the top of the bottom rail. In the right-side panel, a bird was added to the design. This bird is done completely with solder—yet it has dimension, feathers, and even an eye. It sits calmly on its branch with no doubt about flying away. This simple image captures the essence of the family that lives here. They are welcoming, confident, successful, resourceful, calm and a pleasure to engage in any conversation.

From the moment one enters this home, one is stuck by the attention to detail, the care for the spaces within the house and the materials used in every corner. From the Entry, looking up these two doors are visible. They are designed to look like a branch from below has grown high enough to pass across a double window. The end result is stunning.

Tarzana Entrance Door and Sidelights

The clients at this house had a solid wood front door and plain frosted glass for the sidelights. Their Entry was dark and lacked any sense of elegance. Nothing about the Entry was inviting to visitors. So, they enlisted our help to construct a more dramatic Entry.

The design was drawn from the inside view of the house. The long smooth curves draw the eye upwards, almost like flames swirling with powerful energy. The beveled sidelights were designed to match the serpentine pattern in the exterior brickwork.

This installation was one of Janet’s first designs. one of the owners is an accomplished artist which only added more pressure on Janet. With the client’s art background, Janet and I figured we would be given a design to do in glass, rather than come up with the design ourselves. From an abundance of caution, Janet came up with a couple of designs…hoping that the client would like at least one of them. The clients picked one and that is what we fabricated and installed.

During the installation the client needed to leave for a short while leaving the crew to continue installing the clear tempered piece to the exterior of the door and then the art glass behind it on the interior side. Upon turning into the driveway and looking at the Entry of the house the owner stopped her car suddenly. Much to the owner’s surprise and delight, the design had two hidden elements which no one had seen from the inside view of the panel. There, directly in the center of the glass one can distinguish an “S” and an “M” which by coincidence are the first letters of the owners’ names. Not only did the new door and sidelights allow abundant light into the foyer, but the composition took on a more significant and meaningful intimacy with the letters in the design. The owners were ecstatic.

We enjoy unique requests. For this Pasadena home, the client wanted a rooster theme for the Entry Door. As we discussed the project, the client’s knowledge of roosters became immediately apparent and we recognized that the stained glass panel would need to be done to exacting expectations.

At our second meeting where we presented the client with the full-scale drawing, she looked over the composition and asked if she could make some adjustments to the drawing. One comment we mention to all our clients is that we have no ego when it comes to the composition of a window design. We often simplify or add detail to a design to arrive at the desired effect. Our goal, in every case, is to provide the client with an art piece they will be pleased to see each day. In this case, we just needed to embellish the tail feathers to the satisfaction of the client.

One detail that we understood would need special attention was the rooster’s eye. The glass for the eye was small but we did not want to simply paint an eye on the glass. By firing small pieces of black glass, we were able to develop several glass balls of various sizes. Once we found the correct glass piece, we fused it to the background eye glass. The three-dimensional effect of the pupil worked to great effect once the window was installed in the door. The rooster appears to be watching those in the room from any angle.